1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a windscreen wiper device. More particularly, the invention relates to a windscreen wiper device which includes an elastic elongated carrier element and an elongated wiper blade of a flexible material.
2. Related Art
The present invention relates to a windscreen wiper device comprising an elastic, elongated carrier element, as well as an elongated wiper blade of a flexible material, which can be placed in abutment with a windscreen to be wiped, which wiper blade includes opposing longitudinal grooves on its longitudinal sides, in which grooves spaced-apart longitudinal strips of the carrier element are disposed, wherein neighbouring ends of said longitudinal strips are interconnected by a respective connecting piece, which windscreen wiper device comprises a connecting device for an oscillating arm, wherein said oscillating arm is pivotally connected to said connecting device about a pivot axis near one end, with the interposition of a joint part.
Such a windscreen wiper device is known from German patent publication no. 101 30 903 (Robert Bosch GmbH). This prior art windscreen wiper device is designed as a “yokeless” wiper device, wherein no use is made of several yokes pivotally connected to each other, but wherein the wiper blade is biassed by the carrier element, as a result of which it exhibits a specific curvature. This known device has a first coupling half fixed to the oscillating arm, as well as a second coupling half fixed to the wiper blade, wherein two parallel interspaced supporting walls of the second coupling half are oriented in the longitudinal direction of the wiper blade. Each end of a pivot pin for a joint part, which is mounted on the pivot pin in a manner that permits it to swing between the supporting walls and which is provided for connecting the oscillating arm, is held in these supporting walls. In order to obtain protection against environmental influences such as snow, ice and dust, the oscillating arm is u-shaped in the area of its coupling half, whereby the U-base covers the supporting (protective) walls and both U-limbs cover the outer sides of these supporting walls.
A disadvantage of the windscreen wiper device known from the above-mentioned German patent document is that, due to high forces exerted in practice on the connection between the connecting device and the oscillating arm, the reliability of said connection appears to diminish with the passage of time, resulting in play between the connecting device and the oscillating arm. Such a play in practice has proven to lead to frictional contact between these parts and therefore to wear. A further disadvantage thereof is that many constructional parts are involved in the connection between the connecting device and the oscillating arm, making the known windscreen wiper device laborious to manufacture and therefore relatively costly.